OngoingWorlds blog

News & articles about play-by-post games, for roleplayers & writers

Dec
14

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How Star Army uses custom imagery

Category: Behind the scenes - running RPGs, PBEM games Tags: , , 3 Comments

ketsurui_rikouOne of the most important and obvious aspects of a text-based roleplaying game is that it uses text. But we don’t just have to stick to the written form, many roleplaying games use imagery and cool graphics to convey ideas, places, characters and mood. After all, a picture is worth a thousand words!

One of the most illustrative roleplaying games I’ve seen is Star Army, which uses brilliant custom artwork. I recently spoke with Wes Davis, creator of Star Army about the amazing artwork they use. Read More

Dec
5

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This holiday, give the gift of a drama-free gaming group

Category: Behind the scenes - running RPGs, non-PBP roleplaying Tags: , , Leave a Comment

Kim from RP Repository

Written by Kim from RP Repository

Drama destroys gaming groups. It happens all the time.

There’s a popular wisdom that would have us think that this is because “nerds” or “geeks” aren’t the most socially apt, but in fact, petty conflict breeds misery all over the world. From school rooms to board rooms, from church groups to hockey teams, tough talks are still tough talks, and even the most well-adjusted individuals don’t enjoy rocking the boat. EVEN if they don’t like the boat!

Over on the RP Repository, the social network for Roleplay Gamers and their characters, we’d like to propose a different theory:

1) Gaming is only genuine fun when you’re playing with people who you like, and who like you back
2) Most damaged relationships can be repaired, with a bit of work
3) Most people, nerd, geek or normal, want to be friends and are willing to make changes if they know what they are Read More

Dec
1

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OtherSpace – Story arcs in a MUSH

Category: Behind the scenes - running RPGs, non-PBP roleplaying, Play-by-post discussion Tags: , 2 Comments

Otherspace

I received an email the other week letting me know that the space-opera MUSH OtherSpace is starting a new story arc, and they’re asking for money contributions to help out with funding their hosting, marketing expenses and production costs. You might have heard of OtherSpace, we hosted an article about them earlier this year interviewing Wes, the creator (you can see it here).

Whilst OtherSpace is a bit different to the types of roleplaying games ran on OngoingWorlds, they’re remarkably close and still have members who contribute to an ongoing story, just like our play-by-post games. I interviewed Wes again, asking some questions about his new story arc called “Broken Web”. Read More

Nov
23

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Time distortions in roleplaying – Do your story threads match up?

Category: Behind the scenes - running RPGs, Play-by-post discussion, Writing tips Tags: , 2 Comments

Distorted clock

One of the most complicated aspects of writing for a roleplay online is one that I’ve actually never heard many people discuss, although every game and group probably has their own interpretation of how it should be handled. What I’m talking about is time.

Time is more or less constant (unless you ask an astrophysicist of course). And often days or weeks can go past between writing your roleplay post, and you often don’t want time to have elapsed since your last post, which means time goes slower in your roleplay. Read More

Oct
12

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The Age-Old Debate: Quality vs. Quantity

Category: Behind the scenes - running RPGs, Play-by-post discussion Tags: 6 Comments

Rolls Royce vs average cars

So Which Is It?

In all my years of simming I don’t think any single issue has been more divisive in the play by e-mail/post/board worlds than the question of quality vs. quantity.  Unfortunately, since no one conducts scientific studies of online role playing or its participants, we’re forced to rely on basic observation and our own experiences, which can be very deceiving at times.  Nevertheless, I can recall multiple instances when a quality vs. quantity discussion blew up into a full-scale battle, sometimes splitting sims, and even clubs on occasion.  I bet you remember similar episodes too!  So what is it?  Which attribute is more important for the success of a sim?  Is it quality?  Or is it quantity?  Answer that question in your head right now.  Better yet, write it down on a scrap sheet of paper. Read More

Jul
2

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A nail in the coffin for Yahoo Groups

Category: Behind the scenes - running RPGs, Roleplay Systems Tags: 8 Comments

CoffinYesterday I received an email which makes me worried about the future of Yahoo! groups.

Yahoo! Groups have been around for over 10 years, and before that they were called eGroups. This was where I played my first roleplaying game, as Yahoo! Groups was popular with roleplayers as it was free and easy, and allowed users to send emails out to members of the game. This was a proper PBEM (play-by-email) game.

I used a Yahoo Group to run my Blue Dwarf game for 10 years and in that time there were no new advancements made to the system, giving me the impression that Yahoo had abandoned the service, only continuing to run it for legacy purposes. That’s when I moved Blue Dwarf over to OngoingWorlds (If you want to know more about this process, here’s an article I wrote at the time). Read More

Jun
28

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Moderator Appreciation Day – July 1st

Category: Behind the scenes - running RPGs, Events Tags: , Leave a Comment

DavidDo you appreciate your moderators? If you haven’t shown your appreciation, there’s now a full day where you’re encouraged to show your appreciation. This article is written by Kim, the creator and admin of RPrepository.com, a social network devoted to Roleplayers and their characters. Despite its huge range of unique features, feedback from its community of thousands consistently names the open, friendly atmosphere as the #1 thing they treasure about the site.

Kim from RP Repository

Kim from RP Repository

The internet is an unruly and sometimes dangerous place. When you find an oasis where people are friendly and capable of having civil discussions, you know you’ve found something special. Often these utopias are ephemeral, here one year and then gone the next. To survive its own success, an internet oasis needs some truly great moderators to prevent its culture from drying up.

As the admin of a large roleplay site, the RP repository, I have the pleasure of working with an outstanding moderating team. Every month, I hear from countless users who have nightmare stories about the behaviors of other moderators on other sites. And I hear how surprised they are to have discovered a place where they can be on friendly terms with the moderators, rather than living in terror of them. It’s enormously tragic that these tales of moderation woe are so common, but not surprising. Read More

Jun
24

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Roma – Historic roleplaying

Category: Behind the scenes - running RPGs, Interviews, PBEM games, Story summaries Tags: , Leave a Comment

DavidI love history, and especially the Roman period. As a kid I loved visiting ruined Roman forts, which is why I’m really excited to see a Roman-themed roleplay created on OngoingWorlds. This article was written by Edward Willems, the GM of Roma.

RomaThe idea for Roma came gradually, mainly through watching far too many films about ancient Rome and Greece – Come on, what GM hasn’t had a game at least partly derived from a favourite book or film? Anyway, the idea basically solidified when watching the film Troy. The thinking was effectively: “Brilliant, great film, historically accurate, good battle scenes, where are all the gods and monsters I wanted to see?” In the actual myth gods and magic frequently pop in and out, and the story’s pretty flat without them.

It occurred to me that this is true of roleplaying games too – Historical ones are great fun because it’s basically a fantasy setting that’s more believable and comes with its own inbuilt backstory. But the same problem applies: stringently detailed historical accuracy and ruthless realism take the bounce out of any game. Read More

Jun
14

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Wreckage: A survival roleplaying game

Category: Behind the scenes - running RPGs, Interviews, OngoingWorlds site news, PBEM games, Story summaries Tags: , 1 Comment

Wreckage

David

I’m always glad when I see a new game created on OngoingWorlds, and I especially like the bespoke games with a very stand-alone story. A story created recently that looks extremely promising is Wreckage, created by Mike, who recently wrote some articles for this blog. Stand-alone games (and I mean games that aren’t based on an existing franchise like Harry Potter, Star Trek etc) are often tough to get started because it can be difficult to attract players, but are great because you’ve got complete freedom over the world and characters, and Mike’s game has made a brilliant start at creating a gripping story.

I asked Mike 3 questions about his game, and here’s what he wrote:

Read More

May
16

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Using RP Repository to showcase your characters

Category: Behind the scenes - running RPGs Tags: , 2 Comments

DavidOne of the biggest challenges of running a roleplaying game is getting other members to sign-up and play, and I’ve seen so many fail quite early on because the GM can’t get enough players together. Advertising your game is important, and in this article Mike explains how you can use a website called RPG Repository to showcase your characters to other roleplayers.

Mike

Mike Krueger (MnMike on OngoingWorlds)

Most of us know that the key to recruiting new players for our PbP games is to network with others who are already interested in Roleplaying. Some games have turned to Facebook with great success, but there are other options available to us online.

One such option, and the subject of this article, is the relatively new RP Repository. (http://www.rprepository.com)

The RP Repository (hereafter referred to simply as RPR) just celebrated its second “birthday” and has grown to host pages for over 4000 registered members. That is quite impressive for a site that has been advertised almost entirely by word of mouth.

Read More

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